YouTube begins silencing music videos

Due to copyright infringement, uploads face silent treatment

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There is nothing new in the news that YouTube has been taking videos off its site for copyright reasons, but now the video-upload service has started stripping off the music and leaving a silent video.

TechCrunch is reporting a recent crop of silent music videos, which has led to a number of users believing that the sound on their computer is broken.

The real reason is because of YouTube's ability to fingerprint audio tracks. So, if you upload a copyrighted track to the site, the owner of the copyright is notified and they can choose to keep the video on, complete with advert, or ask for it to be taken down.

To YouTube's credit, it is letting users know of the lack of audio. Underneath the copyright-infringed music videos is a note, stating: "This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders. The audio has been disabled."

When you upload a video to YouTube, it clearly states in the terms and conditions that copyright material will be removed from the site.

YouTube's owner Google is still in dispute with Viacom, the owner of MTV, who is asking for $1 billion in damages for unauthorised material published on the site.